Supreme Court (Galactic Republic)
The Supreme Court of the Galactic Republic (SCOTGR) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the Galactic Republic. It has ultimate (and largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all federal and planetary court cases that involve a point of federal law, and original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party". The Court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Galactic Constitution. It is also able to strike down chancellorial directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The Court may decide cases having political overtones, but it has ruled that it does not have the power to decide non-justiciable political questions. For all case and purposes, the Republic's Supreme Court is almost entirely a carbon copy of the Terran Homeworld nationstate of the United States of America, including all the powers afforded to them, as well as to how their decisions are made, with a few changes here and there, two of which are the number of judges and how long they can serve for. The Republic's Supreme Court is made up of a Chief Justice with twelve associate justices. All twelve of the associated justices have long-terms, typically once a term and can only remain a supreme court judge until their mid-eighties, and once they reach this, they must step down and replace by a new justice. Only the Chief Justice has a life-long term and only replaced until he or she dies. While largely apolitical, it's not uncommon for the Court to take the position of Chancellor out of the hands of the Galactic Senate in times of deep political division, and just as often does the Court give over control of the Chancellorship over to the Jedi Order. Over the twenty-five thousand years of Republic history, the Court had taken over the Chancellorship and given it over to the Jedi Order about twenty-five times. The Last time this had occurred when during a particularly unstable time for the Republic, one filled by insurgencies, rebellions, and political division, the latter of which caused a period of time where there was a new Chancellor every year which eventually saw the Court seize control of the Chancellorship and gave it over to the Jedi Order who held onto the office for the vast majority of the instability that plagued the Republic around the same time that the Terran Great Depression occurred. The Court meets in the Supreme Court Building in the Senate District on Coruscant and its' main law enforcement arm is the Supreme Court Security Force. History Composition Membership Facilities Jurisdiction Process Institutional powers and constraints Law clerks Criticism Category:National supreme courts Category:Supreme Court of the Galactic Republic Category:Republic Government Category:Judicial Branch of the Galactic Republic